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Winning with class is easy. Losing with class not so much.
Mineral Point and Barneveld girls basketball teams won with class this last week and advanced to the WIAA state tournament. Barneveld has been there 11 times and have won six championships. This will be the first trip for the Pointers.
Class starts from the top with Barneveld coach Doug Pickerts and his staff and Mineral Point coach Mitch Wainwright and his staff. Mitch is also the principal.
But then it spreads to the kids, the players, and in the many games we have covered involving those two teams, the kids are remarkable in their attitudes and their support of one another.
We wish both well at state.
Class also comes to the surface when a team loses and a high school career is finished.
Dodgeville, under first year coach Matt McGraw, played hard every possession this season and came up one point short to Lodi in the regionals finals. The team members left everything out on the floor and that is the way it should be. When the game is over they shook hands and soon will let the memories of a good season sink in.
Iowa-Grant under coach Toby Tripalin won the SWAL title this season for the first time in 20 years then entered the tournament with high expectations.
But in the second half of the Belleville game in the regional semi-finals one of the Wildcat defenders tried to stop a sure basket by Isaac Anderson and put him into the wall, injuring his leg.
Saturday, when the Panthers lost to Cuba City 44-40 Isaac was hobbled with an injury that should have put him on the bench.
But with all the class he and the Panthers have, he gutted it out for 36 minutes and contributed 15 points.
"He didn't want to let his teammates down," Tripalin said.
It was that kind of attitude that drove the Panthers to the SWAL title and allowed them to play some entertaining basketball along the way.
Nothing is given in this life and nothing is for sure. These kids learned that and lived it.
They are all to be congratulated.
And while we are talking about class, congratulations to Cobb native Greg Gard who had the "interim" title removed from his name and is now the head coach for the Wisconsin Badgers. If you find a classier guy, let me know.